From the city's past marked by the May riots a decade ago, new lives and businesses are sprouting in spots once burned in the chaos.

Several workers at an East Jakarta chicken noodle stall, in one of the shop-houses badly burned in 1998, run their business today in the still-blackened building.

"I remember, the first day of our business after the 1998 riots, cleaning up the wreckage," said Narno, 30, one of the stall's five workers who started selling chicken noodles in the shop-house in 2001.

Little repair was seen a decade after the riots on May 14 and 15, 1998; the ceiling and parts of the wall remain black.

Narno did not know why the shop-house owner did not restore the building before renting it out. "Probably, the owners just don't have the money to do it," he said.

Next to the stall another shop-house has transformed into an automobile workshop. The ceiling and wall appeared worse than its neighbor's, yet it was business as usual for them.

Next to the shop-houses building stand the former Klender Plaza. Known as Citra Mall, the six-story mall was reopened eight years ago.

Narno said: "The business here is promising. We welcome more than 100 customers on a daily basis, mostly employees from the new Citra Mall."

A 53-year-old security guard at the mall, Muzain, who has been working there since 1991, said he remembered 10 years ago watching as a mob robbed the shopping center stores and set them on fire.

When asked whether there was anything to learn from the incident, he said, "No, let's just move forward. As we can see now, the mall is standing again, more beautiful and welcoming many visitors".

"Besides, I have no doubt that all the people killed in the burned mall were the robbers themselves."

Muzain said that at 10 a.m. on that violent day, he and his 20 guards had closed the mall and sent all customers, tenants and workers away from the building, while a mob of some 2,000 gathered outside and threw rocks at the mall.

He said he was not traumatized by the riots even though he'd witnessed them. "It was an awful memory, but I prefer to regard it as a valuable experience just like a soldier might regard experience in a war."

Chinese-Indonesian Hariyanto, who owns a cell phone accessories shop at the new mall, said he previously hesitated to go to the mall again. "I used to hang out here quite often, but stopped for awhile after it was burned."

Hariyanto, 31, finally gave up his worries when his brother, who works at a cell phone shop, told him the mall had a lot of visitors right after its reopening.

He said he would continue his business there, despite memories of the riot.

"I still remember that day when I saw the raging mobs wrecking this mall. It gives me a chill."

A mall attendant, Sumartini, said: "I do not want to think much about the mall history or the stories that came after that. It's too creepy."

Citra Mall is one of many other malls across the city with a connection to the riot.

A 46-year-old ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver Marjoko recalled seeing mobs ransacking Slipi Jaya Plaza in 1998.

"After the riots, I tried to find work at other places, but I returned eventually because I get better earnings here."

Agus Lim, 64, a regular customer of Slipi Jaya Plaza who lives in Tanjung Duren in West Jakarta, said he and his neighbors had to guard their homes for a week during and after the riots.

"In the first two years after the riots, I got easily startled by the sound of vehicles and people from down the street. But I think I'm over it now," said Agus. He said he was still worried a riot could take place again despite better acceptance of the Chinese-Indonesian and the country's reformed political situation.

The peak of the 1998 tension hit May 14 and 15, when mobs targeted property and businesses owned by Chinese-Indonesians. Many shops put up signs reading milik pribumi, "natives' property", to avoid being burned and looted.

A fact-finding team, established to investigate the May tragedy, reported nearly 2,000 people burned to death, 27 dead from sharp weapons, 52 women raped and 850 buildings torched.

Chairman of the Indonesian Anti-Discrimination Movement, or Gandi, Wahyu Effendi, said the most important thing was to make sure the tragedy never happened again.

"Ideally, the government would provide legal processes to give the victims' families some justice. But up to now, there has not been any remedy for the victims," he told The Jakarta Post.

In the era of the B.J. Habibie presidency, the government restored the business infrastructure in Glodok, Jakarta's Chinatown area in West Jakarta.

"But that was nothing more than a ceremonial thing," Wahyu said.

He said, "The victims need a more complete solution (including) political acknowledgement and justice".

He said the more time passed, the more difficult it would be to catch those behind the riot.

"What is most important is to understand what really happened in 1998, which can be done through legal processes."

Social investigations by civil communities have been made but none were recognized by the government, he said.

Wahyu also said, "Parliament members have a moral responsibility to endorse this, so that we can have justice from the current available system, like the Human Rights National Commission and the Attorney General's Office."